How can Calvinists be effective in spiritual warfare?
I was thinking of this last night as I fell asleep:
How can a Calvinist be effective in spiritual warfare when they believe ...
... that God has predestined the way everything will happen, and nothing we do can change it?
... that God ultimately causes us to do what we do, so we have no real control over our actions anyway?
... that everything that happens is because God caused it to happen that way, everything that happens is His Will? (So why bother fighting against anything that happens?)
... that God always causes demons to do exactly what they do, for His Will and His glory? (So then I guess the whole "spiritual battle" is really just a farce anyway, a dramatic play. So why should we try to work against demons, because wouldn't that really be working against "God's Will" and the things He's doing "for His glory"?)
... that prayer is really just a meaningless formality that doesn't have any effect on anything because it's all been predestined by God anyway?
... that diseases and tragedies are always caused by God (instead of simply being bad effects of the Fall or sin), for His glory? That things like cancer and abuse are "gifts" from Him that we should accept in thankfulness because He caused them for our good and His glory and to keep us humble? (BULLCRAP!!! Oh my goodness, does this one anger me!!! Click here for my Calvi-pastor's view on this. Also see this one on "Are Tragedies Gifts From God?" On a different note: Of course, prayer doesn't always heal us physically or fix things the way we want them fixed. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try, that we should just roll over and accept all these bad things as "God's blessings." And how wrong to blame God for them, when sometimes the real cause is the Fall, sin, a broken world, broken people, Satan, etc. "God allowed it to happen" is nowhere near the same thing as "God caused it to happen." And if we get this wrong, we will pay a heavy price.)
I wonder how many Calvinists simply hand themselves over to demonic activity, to disease, to bad circumstances ... because they don't think that anything they do really matters anyway. Because they believe everything's been preplanned, and nothing can change it. Because they think that fighting against what happens is always the same thing as fighting against God's Will. Because they think that God wills everything that happens and that everything that happens is because God willed it, for His glory.
How an a Calvinist be effective in spiritual warfare when they don't believe they have any effect on the spiritual or physical world?
I wonder how many Calvinists are living ineffectual lives because Satan's convinced them that Calvi-god is the God of the Bible and that Calvinism is the Gospel!
[Also see
and "Prayer" (from my Bible study)]
